Description

Tomáš Rasl’s free cycles

The book Between Day and Dream accompanies the exhibition of the same name of a selection of the work of the photographer Tomáš Rasl over the last two decades. Rasl’s photos began to appear in exhibitions while he was still studying at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and he had his first solo exhibition in 2000. He was already photographing in large formats and studying old and often rarely used technological procedures. This interest has continued and the book offers an insight into his different methods, techniques and experiments. Someone
who undeniably had a great influence on Rasl was his first photography teacher, his grandfather Ferdinand Bučina, to whose legacy Rasl has recently devoted much of his attention…

Tomáš works in free cycles, series that are created over many years and continue to grow and remain open to other experiments and possibilities. Sometimes there are many variations on a single photograph that form autonomous works in their own right. Recently Tomáš has been working with the bromoil process, and this has resulted in original and elegant prints. The landscape is hugely important to him, and he views it through the eyes of a pilgrim and sensitive observer. Photos from the cycle Proud and Barren Places often depict what at first sight seem banal subjects: branches, dry grass, an overgrown path. However, appearances can be deceptive. Looking more closely the viewer finds themselves in a different, concealed world of mysterious poetry that reveals stories of essential power, cruelty and love. Rasl’s landscapes are silent witnesses of long forgotten events that survive in subtle symbols, overlooked details, and in their dreamy atmosphere of
timelessness…

New motifs enter into Rasl’s photos slowly. Each new idea is subject to long experimentation. We cannot assume that this situation will change significantly in future works by Rasl, and indeed there is no reason for it to. His current conception of photography is free and open, and he will continue working with these fundamental themes. It is no coincidence that he works with free cycles that are always open to new possibilities and experiments….